NUSAJAYA, June 8 – The Johor state government has no plans to gazette Johor Baharu city as a national heritage, the state assembly was told today.
Chairman of Youth, Sport, Arts and Culture Committee, Datuk Zulkurnain Kamisan said the state government is focused on gazetting heritage buildings and sites.
“The state government will consider proposals to gazette this city as a national heritage and will study the merits,” he said replying to a question from Dr Boo Cheng Hau (DAP-Skudai) when winding up debate in the state assembly.
Zulkurnain said expert opinion via seminars could be sought based on the experience of heritage cities in this country such as Melaka and Penang.
The Johor Heritage Foundation had listed 170 historical sites and monuments of which 22 was approved for gazetting by the State Executive Council (Exco).
Six sites, buildings and monuments were gazetted under the Antiquities Act 1976 while two sites were declared as heritage sites under the National Heritage Act 2005.
The buildings are Kota Batu Johor Lama in Kotan Tinggi, Istana Besar and Masjid Sultan Abu Bakar in Johor Baharu, Muar Government Office, Muar High School and Segamat High School.
“Taman Negara Gunung Ledang and Taman Negara Tanjung Piai were declared as heritage sites in May 2012,” said Zulkurnain.
Replying to a question from M.Asojan (BN-Gambir), he said the state government had approved the establishment of 26 community youth centres with WiFi technology by year end.
Initially, it will provide free WiFi at the Youth and Sports Complex in Larkin and Rakan Muda Sports Complex in Desaru, Kota Tinggi, in November.
“For the long term, we are studying the need for WiFi at youth recreation areas such as tennis, badminton and futsal courts, mosques or surau.”
–BERNAMA
